Kim Kardashian West Shares What People “Don’t Really Know” About Kanye West

Kris Jenner, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian attend an intimate dinner hosted by The Business of Fashion to celebrate its latest special print edition 'The Age of Influence' at Peachy's/Chinese Tuxedo on May 8, 2018.

By Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.

About 24 hours after attending the Met Gala red carpet in a slinky, radiant gold Versace dress (emblazoned with some on-theme crosses, for good measure), Kim Kardashian West selected a different yellow, formfitting Versace dress for a much more low-key occasion. Kardashian West was honored at a dinner Tuesday night at Chinatown’s Chinese Tuxedo, hosted by The Business of Fashion, which features her on the cover of their “Business of Beauty” special report, and the Estee Lauder Companies. The reality-TV star was supported by her family, including Kendall Jenner,Kylie Jenner, and Kris Jenner (accompanied by boyfriend Corey Gamble), as well as pal La La Anthony and Tommy Hilfiger.

In a conversation shortly before the event, Kardashian West said that her Met Gala dress this year was “one of [her] favorites,” noting she didn’t actually have the fitting for it “until the night before.” She explained, “We had gone through sketch after sketch, perfecting it. They took my measurements, but inside I was freaking out a little bit. Was it going to fit? I had lost six or seven pounds in the last two weeks, doing a cleanse, and so I really wanted to make sure that it fit me . . . So I was freaking out a little bit, and then it just fit me like a glove—like, it was perfection. It was so good.”

Having posted selfies with everyone from Jennifer Lopez to Sarah Jessica Parker over the course of the night, Kardashian West seemed to have made the rounds during her Met Gala evening. Her “standout” moment from the night, though, was Madonna’s surprise performance: “I was, like, singing . . . like, monks were singing ‘Like a Prayer.’ I mean, I saw her in concert so I’ve seen it. But in the Met, in a museum, with the monks. It was insane.”

Over the past year, Kardashian West has worked to build her now-behemoth beauty brand, KKW Beauty—any given day’s worth of her Instagram Stories now almost always includes a good portion of makeup swatches or promotional materials. And her talent for marketing remains a major part of the brand’s success. “Something came to me yesterday,” she said, “And it was for a new fragrance—[to come out] a year from now—but the press pack came to me first, like the press box.” Given the widespread press and social-media attention her recent fragrance, KKW Body, got for the shape of its bottle, based on her own body, she clearly has mastered the power of packaging and presentation.

Kardashian West says she will run ideas by husband Kanye West, who is often eager to share his own thoughts on her projects. “I always love my husband’s opinion. We always have a good balance—or, like, even if he won’t know, he’ll be like, ‘You know what? I have a really good packaging person that can help perfect your box.’ And it’s worked. And it saved me when I’m just maybe, you know—when my vision isn’t coming to life and I’m stuck. He’ll always help me pick the pieces up.”

After West’s Twitter feed attracted the attention of millions, the president included, in recent weeks, Kardashian referenced the situation broadly, tweeting that Twitter was a “better place” with West on it, and sharing some supportive tweets from fans. She also addressed the situation, somewhat obliquely, on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she said she had seen her husband’s tweets and offered, “I think he was talking about cleansing.” According to her, she often has to maintain patience and restraint when it comes to addressing family matters. “I mean, there’s definitely times when I’ll see things . . . and I'm just, like, I wanna say something so badly . . . and then I just have to get off for a second. Because if someone has something so wrong, or they’re like . . . Kim’s not doing anything, and I’m like, ‘Oh, you don’t even know what’s going on at home. Like, you don’t even know the half of what I’m doing.’ And you sometimes want to chime in, and then you just have to give it up, and just be like, ‘You know what? There are private moments. Or we’re filming, so it will come out one day and people will feel really stupid when they realize . . .’”

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is currently in production, having followed the family through their preparations for the Met Gala and, quite possibly, West’s recent misadventures. (“He’s probably the funniest guy you’ve ever met,” Kardashian West answered when asked what the public might not know about her husband. “He’s just really witty and quick.”) When filming for the 15th season (which will likely premiere later this year) wraps up, the Kardashians will take a rare months-long break from the cameras. “We haven’t taken months off in between seasons in a couple of years,” Kardashian West said. “It’s only been like a two-week break. So we have a few months off, and that will really rejuvenate all of us, and then [we’ll] come back together even stronger.” She instinctively teases the drama that hasn’t even taken place yet: “And so much will go on in that two months. We’ll have a lot to catch up [on].”

Before ending our conversation—before she will sit next to Anthony at a table for dinner, of course taking a few selfies that will be added to both of their Instagram feeds—it occurs to me that it’d be interesting to observe how Kardashian West might interview someone else. She is—on her show, on social media, at events—always in the spotlight, always in some sense a target. Hoping for some insight, I asked who she would most want to interview, in the same fashion Jennifer Lawrence recently interviewed her on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She responded, immediately, “Cher, for sure.”

She continued, “I just saw her in concert and she’s everything to me—just, I would want to know about each look and what she was doing. I went to her concert, and I was dressed in this amazing turquoise outfit that I made as an inspiration to something that she wore. And then she saw me and was like, ‘Oh, I went here this night, and I was doing this, and this is what I did when I wore that.’ She remembered the whole look, and that to me was like, ‘Oh my god, I want more.’ I just want to know more stories behind the looks and how she was so brave. I mean, she did it all, and she did it first.”

Kardashian West is so calm and measured when answering questions—so skilled at speaking about herself in a way that feels revealing, while still, in some sense, remaining careful—that it can be possible to forget the endless flurry of tabloid stories and scandals and family drama that surround her pretty much at all times. As much as she might reveal about herself, in an interview or on the show, it often feels as if there is another angle she is working out in her head—a piece of the puzzle she knows will become public at a later point, perhaps—that leaves one, in the same way she herself felt after meeting Cher, with—and maybe this is a key component of her success—the feeling of wanting to know more.

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